In the area of record media advancement in business machines, it has long been common practice to use drive rollers, drive belts, sprocket wheels, cam and follower devices, clutch mechanisms, and related apparatus for causing the record media to be driven or advanced past a reading or recording station with expected preciseness and certainty of operation so that the lines of indicia are exact and compatible with the reading or recording operation. For example, a standard spacing in printed matter is set at six lines per inch and the record media is expected to be advanced by mechanism which provides for incremental driving of the media to obtain the desired line spacing.
While many ways and means of line spacing have been disclosed, representative prior art may include U.S. Pat. No. 2,895,585, issued to H. Guldner et al. and relating to line spacing devices for business machines wherein a ratchet wheel, a control lever, a cam and drive element operate the device by pivotal movement of the drive element during transverse movement of the carriage, there being pawls operating with the ratchet wheel for forward or reverse line spacing. U.S. Pat. No. 3,444,977, issued to M. E. Kinney et al., shows mode selection for the control of a plurality of work sheets in a billing machine wherein a manual lever operates with a releasable clutch connection through a rocker member and a claw to advance the forms. U.S. Pat. No. 3,477,627, issued to H. Webers, shows synchronized reciprocating feed devices wherein first and second rotary-to-oscillating motion conversion devices, together with first and second feed pawls, operate to feed workpieces in long and short strokes in one direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,572,567, issued to H. Claar, discloses cam mechanism for the film-advancing system in a cinematographic device wherein a cam of disc members, defining cam surfaces which are out of phase with each other, operate with cam followers for converting motion of the drive shaft into reciprocating motion of the film pull down claw. And, U.S. Pat. No. 3,653,483, issued to A. Cortona et al., discloses a paper feed system for accounting machines having platens rotatable independently of one another and including feeding of the journal sheet by use of an actuating magnet, a presetting magnet, an actuating clutch and various presetting clutches.